


hold onto the memories (and they will hold onto you)

by GallifreyanFairytale



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Friends to Lovers, Gay Big Red (HSM: The Series), Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Reminiscing, basically i took a rini scene and made it redky, because i love redky way too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22021765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale
Summary: "Like, do you remember when you were in kindergarten and making friends was that easy?”“I remember when we were in kindergarten and you started calling me Red because neither one of us liked my real name.”
Relationships: Big Red & Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Big Red/Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 98





	hold onto the memories (and they will hold onto you)

**Author's Note:**

> basically i took the Rini scene in episode 8 where they're running through their lines and then start talking about being friends in kindergarten n stuff and turned it into a Redky scene because i'm Trash and this idea came to me while i was in the shower the other day.
> 
> tw for referenced homophobia

Ms. Jenn sighed, interrupting Ricky’s stumbling through his lines. Both he and Nini looked over at her. “This isn’t working,” she said. She looked over at Red. “Why don’t you and Ricky go run through these lines. I want you _off book_ by the time you come back,” she shot a pointed glare at Ricky. “Nini, I need you to stay here and we’ll work on a scene without Troy.”

Ricky sighed as he hopped off the stage and grabbed his script. Red joined him, and the two wandered around a bit until they found an empty room they could practice in. Ricky handed Red his script and pointed out where Red should start reading.

Red began to read from the script, “Remember in kindergarten, you’d meet a kid, know nothing about them, then ten seconds later, you were best friends?”

“Yeah.”

“Singing with you felt like that.”

“I never thought about singing, that’s for sure. Until you. And now, I don’t wanna stop. Ever.”

Red looked up from the script. “Are you sure you’re really struggling with these lines? ...Or is there something else going on?”

Ricky’s shoulders slumped. How was he supposed to tell Red what was going on when what was going on was that Ricky’s feelings towards Red were… _complicated_? He’d already potentially ruined his friendship with Nini, and he didn’t want to make the same mistake with Red. He _couldn’t_ lose Red.

Ricky shrugged. “I guess… I guess I just keep getting distracted thinking about what the lines are actually saying. Like, do _you_ remember when you were in kindergarten and making friends was that easy?”

“I remember when we were in kindergarten and you started calling me Red because neither one of us liked my real name.” Red let the hand that was holding the script fall down to his side. “And I remember you mispronouncing Nini’s name to the point that now no one even knows her name’s actually Nina.”

Ricky smiled. “Do you remember Nini returning the favor when she started calling me Ricky in first grade?”

Red chuckled. “She had a point, though. What first grader goes by _Richard_?”

Ricky sighed and sat down on the piano bench. “That was ten years ago. Can you believe it? The three of us have been friends for _ten years_. Well…” Ricky’s expression soured. He and Nini hadn’t exactly been _friends_ since he’d suggested they take a break. And he wasn’t sure what they were now, but he was too scared to ask.

Red sat down next to Ricky and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, you’re right. We’ve been friends for ten years. They say if you’re friends for at least seven, it’s a friendship that will never end. If anyone can bounce back, it’s you and Nini. Remember in second grade when you guys got into that argument about our group project, and you felt so bad about it that I helped you write a letter to apologize, but we were writing so fast that we spelled her name wrong?”

Ricky laughed at that, despite the tears beginning to build up in his eyes. Red was right, the three of them had been through thick and thin together. And Ricky was really hoping it would take more than a breakup to tear them apart.

“Thank you, by the way, for doing that. And for everything else. You’ve never left my side in ten years.” That wasn’t actually true - Red and Ricky had gotten into a big fight in seventh grade that resulted in them refusing to speak to each other for months before they finally gave in and reconnected because they missed each other too much. But even during that time, Ricky knew that if he’d really needed Red’s help, Red would have dropped everything for him and he would have done the same for Red.

“You know I’d do anything for you.” Red bumped his shoulder against Ricky’s. “And thanks for being there for me, too. We’ve made a pretty good team these past ten years.”

“Yeah.” Ricky wasn’t sure when he and Red had gotten so close to each other, but it didn’t seem like either one of them was too interested in backing away. “Even the teachers thought so. Remember in third grade when we were dubbed ‘the dynamic duo’ by Mr. M?”

“And fourth grade when we became ‘the dream team’?”

“Do you remember fifth grade when Miss Mads put us both in the high ability reading group even though neither one of us deserved it? We got to read in the hallway with the actual smart kids, but we would just mess around.”

“Nini tried taking charge and making us focus, but we never listened.”

“And the projects we had to turn in had nothing to do with the books anyways, so it really didn’t matter if we read them or not.” Ricky’s fingers brushed against Red’s and he entwined them together.

“Remember in sixth grade when they told us not to give our locker combinations to our friends because friendships come and go all the time in middle school, but we still gave ours to each other the first day we had them?” Red asked. “And everyone told us that when we walked into high school for the first time, the friends we walked in with wouldn’t be the same friends we walked out with?”

“I really hope that’s not true,” Ricky said, even though he’d already as good as lost Nini and _wow_ his face was really close to Red's and something in the back of Ricky’s mind wondered if he was going to lose Red before the day’s end too.

“Me too,” Red whispered. “I don’t want to live in a world where we’re not together.”

“Me neither.”

Ricky wasn’t sure if he was the one who leaned in or if it was Red, but what he did know was that their lips were almost touching when the door opened and they both jumped back from each other.

Ricky hoped Nini hadn't seen them, but the stammer in her voice when she spoke told him she probably had. “Uh, Ms. Jenn-- she wants you back out on--" Nini pointed in the direction of the stage, "on stage.” With that, Nini spun around and shut the door behind her.

Ricky grabbed his script from Red and left without a glance backwards. They’d have to talk about it in the car. Or just not at all. Maybe that would be better.

\---

Ricky managed to make it through the scene without stumbling over his lines, and then Ms. Jenn let them go on break. “Them” meaning the actors, because over the course of the past couple months, Ricky had noticed the crew played by different rules. Sometimes most of their rehearsal would seem to be a break and sometimes they’d go for six hours with no breaks at all.

Meaning, in short, that Red was anywhere besides the house, where Ricky had elected to spend his break up in the corner where he hoped no one would try to talk to him.

Unfortunately, Nini sat down next to him as soon as she’d grabbed her water bottle from her backpack. 

“So.” She took a drink of water. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Ricky said miserably. He slid down in his seat. “I don’t know.”

“Ricky, I’m not mad--”

Ricky pounded his fist on the arm rest, stopping Nini in the middle of her sentence. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship! I already ruined the friendship you and I had built up over _ten years_ because I couldn’t say I loved you back, and now I’ve probably ruined Red and I’s friendship too.” Ricky buried his head in his head. “I didn’t want this. I wanted to fall in love with _you_ , Nini, because it would be so much easier. A classic childhood friends to lovers story with a happy ending and nothing for anyone to nitpick at, you know? I didn’t want this, I didn’t want to develop feelings for the wrong friend, I didn’t want to be b--” Ricky stopped himself before he could say it. He didn’t want to say it, because that would make it real, and he didn’t want it to be real.

“Ricky, our friendship doesn’t have to be ruined. I was being immature, anyways. You shouldn’t have needed to say it back, because I should have _known_. You showed it in other ways. And you’ve done the same for Red, all our lives. Ever since kindergarten, you’ve never been good with words or expressing feelings, but you’ve always _shown_ us you’ll be there through your actions. I still love you, Ricky, and I know you still love me, but I don’t think we love each other in the same way as we did when we were dating. I don’t think we can.” Nini’s eyes flicked down for just a moment.

“Nini, I’m scared,” Ricky confessed. He sounded like a toddler waking up to a thunderstorm, but quite honestly, that was what he felt like. “I don’t know how people will react. How my parents will react.”

“I don’t know either," Nini said honestly, "but I do know that I am always here for you if you need me and my house is always open. And I know that you and Red love each other too much to let anything ruin your friendship. Not even in a romantic way. You two have always loved each other, and I think you always will, whether it's in the romantic sense or not.”

Ricky surged forward and pulled Nini into a hug. “Have I ever told you you’re the best?”

\---

When the pizza arrived, everyone - both cast and crew - went on break to eat. Seb and Carlos carried the boxes in and everyone cheered. Ms. Jenn tried to get everyone to get their pizza in an orderly manner, but she gave up when she realized it wasn’t going to work. 

Ricky saw Red grab two slices, then take his plate and sit away from everyone else. Ricky was stuck near the back of the “line” and he was getting antsy. What if Red finished before Ricky even had a chance to get his food, then wandered off? Ms. Jenn was very clear that the pizza was supposed to stay in the house and not go anywhere else, and Ricky needed to eat dinner.

Thankfully, the line moved pretty quickly. Ricky didn’t even look at what kind of pizza he threw onto his plate, and he didn’t stop to pour himself any pop, electing to just grab a water bottle instead, before joining Red.

Red didn’t look up at Ricky when he sat down, but Ricky noticed that he tensed up.

“Do you remember in eighth grade language arts when we had to do the alpha biography project, and we both wrote about each other for the letter R?”

“Then, when we had to read what we wrote for one letter out loud to the class, we both chose R.”

“And Dustin gagged and called us gay, but that never really mattered.”

Red finally looked up at Ricky, his head tilted sideways. “It kinda sucked, though. Being told the way you feel is disgusting, even though you can’t help it.”

“It kinda did suck,” Ricky agreed. “It kinda sucked that we heard that word thrown at us so much throughout middle school that we both decided we would be anything _but_ gay like our lives depended on it.”

Red took a bite of his pizza. “Remember in ninth grade when I came out to you?”

Ricky nodded. “I didn’t know how to react, but I knew I never wanted to stop being your friend. Besides, we had Nini’s moms to look up to as positive role models. ...Did I ever tell you I went to them for help?”

Red shook his head.

“I showed up at Nini’s house unannounced and asked to talk to her moms. I told them I had a friend who’d just come out to me and I didn’t know what to do, because I didn’t want it to change things between us. They told me that it wouldn’t, because my friend was still the same person that he’d been before he came out.”

“You repeated those words to me,” Red recalled. “And honestly, that was exactly what I needed to hear.” He laughed softly. “Thanks to Nini’s moms, I guess.”

“Remember in tenth grade when I told you I had a crush on Nini, and you were the one who finally convinced me to ask her out? You were our number one supporter the entire time we were together, and even after we weren't anymore.”

Red stiffened back up, but he nodded.

“...Remember in eleventh grade when we almost kissed at rehearsal?”

Red didn’t say anything; he just kept staring down at the stage.

“I like you, Red. I really, really, like you, but I was scared because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Our friendship means everything to me, but…”

“But?”

“But I really want to kiss you, and it’s tearing me apart inside.”

Red turned to look at Ricky, stared at him for a few moments, then leaned in and pressed his lips against Ricky’s. Ricky’s hand moved up to cup Red’s cheek and Red rested his hands on Ricky’s shoulders.

When they broke apart, Red asked, “Remember in eleventh grade when I asked you to be my boyfriend?”

Ricky furrowed his eyebrows. “That never happened-- Oh.”

Red smiled.

“Remember in eleventh grade when I said yes?”

Red laid his hand on top of Ricky’s, and the two sat back.

Ricky finally spoke up after a few minutes of silence, “Remember in seventh grade, at your family’s Christmas party, when we got shoved into the basement because we were the only kids there, and we finally made up after not speaking since September?”

Red squeezed Ricky’s hand. “Remember how we swore we’d never leave each other like that again?”

“With a pinky promise?”

“How else would we know we meant it?”

The two boys began to laugh. Ricky shifted so his body was facing Red and held out his hand, pinky sticking up. “No matter how this ends, we’re not gonna let it ruin our friendship, promise?”

Red interlocked his pinky with Ricky's. “Promise.”

Ricky leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Red’s forehead. “You wanna go back down and join everyone else?”

Red glanced down at the others, sitting around and laughing. Seb had their arm around Carlos, Nini was splitting a cookie with Ashlyn, and Kourt and Bianca were trying to wrap a feather boa around EJ.

Red took Ricky’s hand in his, smiling softly. “Let’s go.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> as always, you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/pepperchuk)


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